DR. JACK R. VAN ENS, AUTHOR

CREATIVE GROWTH INC.

9745 W. 77 TH DRIVE

ARVADA, C0 80005

TEL. 303-420-7416

E-mail: vanensfam@juno.com

Web site: www.thelivinghistory.com

TOO LATE FOR THE SPIRIT OF 76 TO PREVAIL IN IRAQ

TOO LATE. That's the sad verdict against the British who tried to initiate peace initiatives with the colonists after the Revolutionary War had erupted.

Might the same verdict prevail in Iraq as we try to establish some semblance of a Republic there? Our leaders have been too late in appreciating vast cultural differences prohibiting a Republic from flourishing. They are tardy in coming to grips with forces in Arab culture that even the most formidable military power in the world can't dominate.

The British admitted they blundered in harshly taxing colonists. But contrition came too late, two years after the Redcoats and colonial militia went to war. Had the British listened to colonial demands from 1764 - 1771, that the mother country restore trade agreements prevailing before 1763, the Spirit of 1776 wouldn't have inspired rebellion. Resistance flared when colonials no longer would accept severe taxes King George III levied on them.

Prior to the public announcement of The Declaration of Independence on July 4 th, 1776, colonists had repeatedly denounced war as a last resort. The might even consider operating as a protectorate in the British Empire, as long as heavy taxes didn't constrict them. Prior to 1774, their aim wasn't to gain independence. Our ancestors who declared freedom from hostile forces saw themselves as British. They were Englishmen who chafed under unfair taxation.

In April 1778 King George III appointed a commission bound for America. They were empowered to offer the Continental Congress a suspension of all detested taxing acts passed since 1763. Moreover, the British would rescind other heavy-handed legislation that angered patriots. The commission went so far as to propose the royal governor the king appointed be withdrawn and replaced by popularly elected emissaries.

The colonials couldn't have imagined a better deal feeding their passion for freedom. They had shed blood for liberty's cause at Lexington and Concord, and again at Bunker Hill. The British offer certainly wasn't too little. But why have such overtures to sue for peace been lost in American historical consciousness?

They came too late. For two years Americans had engaged in war. Their thirst for independence wouldn't let them turn back. Even with reduced taxes, they still rejected top-heavy government with a king at the apex and subjects groveling beneath him. Prior to 1776, the British Empire didn't allow colonials to serve in their government. Reversing this policy in 1778, when war had established itself, proved difficult, if not impossible. Good ideas aren't good when timing is out of kilter. Overtures for colonial representation in Parliament with taxes reduced had a fatal flaw. They came too late.

Jesus spun a parable with the punch line of what happens to good people who are flawed because they are too late. Ten virgins awaited the bridegroom's arrival. Five virgins, assuming the bridegroom would be punctual, didn't stock up on extra oil for their lamps. When the bridegroom tarried, they ran out of oil in the dead of night. Their frantic purchase of oil ate up precious time. They showed up at the wedding feast too late.

Like the British, they had good intentions. But good intentions grease the skids to hell, Jesus inferred. The bridegroom shunned the five tardy virgins, declaring, "Truly, I say to you, I don't know you" ( Matthew 25:1).

A key architect of the war in Iraq, Douglas Feith, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy from July 2001 until August 2005, refutes his boss George W. Bush for being too late in making clear why we went to war in the first place. In his memoir War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terror, Feith accuses Bush of changing the deck of cards in the war game.

Feith asserts our nation went to war for the right reasons. The Saddam Hussein regime "had used WMD, supported various terrorists groups, was hostile to the U.S. and had a record of aggression and defiance of numerous U.N. resolutions." Feith enumerates that from September 2003 to September 2004 President Bush gave 15 major talks about Iraq. "The average number of paragraphs devoted to the record of threats from Saddam was one," an incensed Feith records, "and the number devoted to democracy promotion was approximately 11."

No matter how noble the ideal of bringing democracy to Iraq, the timing was too late. First, the pattern of tribalism in Iraq needed to be broken. First, the rupture between Shiites and Sunnis needed repair. First, separation of church and state needed introduction in a Muslim state that merged the two. First, women's rights had to be elevated. First, corruption among government officials had to be rooted out. First, oil revenues had to be tracked and accounted for because, as The New York Times reports, a third or more of Iraqi oil is siphoned to the black market where profits fuel insurgents.